Personality Disorders

Introduction

Medical professionals and psychiatrists often treat patients with personality disorders who have religious and spiritual disorders. Three personality disorders which are associated with religion are antisocial personality disorder (sociopath/psychopath), narcissistic personality disorder, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. In Future of an Illusion, Freud argued that religious beliefs were rooted in illusion and fantasy, and therefore, they might result in psychosis. He claimed that religions brought with them the universal obsessional neurosis of humanity. This negative view regarding religion, however, was not an outcome of scientific and systematic research based on sound objective observation, yet it continued into modern times in the works of psychiatrists and psychologists, such as Wendell Watters and Albert Ellis, who have pointed out the irrational nature of many religious beliefs. Before DSM-IV, various diagnostic manuals have described staunch...